Second Annual LouFest Takes Over Forest Park

            On Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27 and 28, 2011, Forest Park hosted the second annual LouFest indie music festival. The park was packed with attractions for both children and adults, but the largest attraction was the variety of artists that filled the two day line up.  
          “I thought that the performances were great this year,” said English teacher David Beck. “The variety of performances, great weather, and good vibes created a great weekend for the festival.”
          Performances on the main stage included John Hardy and the Republic, Troubadour Dali, Sleepy Sun, Kings Go Forth, DOM, Surfer Blood, The Hold Steady and Deerhunter on Saturday and Old Lights, Jumbling Towers,UME, Lost in the Trees, The Low Anthem, Das Racist, !!!, Cat Power, and TV on the Radio on Sunday.
           “I really enjoyed LouFest this year. Kings Go Forth was awesome and by far my favorite performance, but overall I think all of the artists put on great shows,” said Beck.
          LouFest not only starred established bands, they also gave up and coming bands a chance to show their talent on the stage, called Area K. Many high school and college bands rocked the stage showing their potential to be headliners in the next couple years. Two of those bands were Lost Continent and Dear Genre.
          “LouFest has been really cool; it’s a great way to get our name out and get our music heard,” said Andy Munoz, guitarist from Lost Continent and senior at Westminster High School. 
          Forest Parkcreated the perfect background to this music festival, allowing many different venues to fill the spaces between the two stages that the artists played on. Along with a large variety of food choices, there were also clothing, jewelry, and music/merchandise tents.
          “This year seemed more well put together than last year. The spacing was a lot better and I wanted to see this year’s line up more than last year’s,” said Beck.
          Another large attraction of the festival was the PlayStation truck. On the side of the park was a huge truck that was filled with many different PlayStation video games, some unreleased.
          LouFest also seemed to be dedicated to the “green” movement. They provided many different means of recycling all items and had stations where fans could find out where their trash should actually go, other than the trash can. They also provided a free water refill station where people could refill the bottles they had bought or brought instead of having to buy more and wasting plastic. The park was very accessible to bikes too and even provided a bike valet.    
          LouFest definitely grew this year from last year and is on the way to becoming a large music festival in the future. For the time being, it is one of the most unique music festivals in St. Louis and is an attraction to be looking forward to next year.